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Ooma's a great alternative to local phone service, but forget the accessories

By Troy Wolverton, San Jose Mercury News Columnist

Posted:
05/31/2013 12:04:40 AM MDT

Updated:
05/31/2013 12:06:04 PM MDT

(Photo courtesy ooma.com)

If you're looking to cut down on your home phone bill without cutting your phone cord entirely, you can do a lot worse than Ooma.

Like other alternatives to your local phone company, Ooma delivers calls over the Internet. Unlike many of its rivals, though, Ooma offers a high-quality service without ongoing connection charges.

Ooma began offering its service about six years ago, but since last fall, it's revamped its offerings. The company introduced a new wireless handset, a device called Linx that allows users to connect multiple phones to their service and a new plan targeted at small business owners.

I've always had a landline and, for the last decade or so, it has come from my broadband provider. But that service has become pricey, especially considering we don't use it much. For a standard landline, you can expect to spend $25 or more each month.

That's what makes VOIP -- Voice Over Internet Protocol -- services such as Ooma's so attractive: They can dramatically slash your home phone bill. Even with the pricier VOIP services, you can save $10 or more a month. And Ooma offers a deal that's even better.

Unlike the broadband services and other VOIP providers, Ooma doesn't require a subscription. Instead, you pay $150 for the company's Telo box, an adapter that basically connects your regular landline phone to your Internet modem or router. After that, the only thing you need to pay are monthly taxes on the service, which typically amount to between $4 and $6.

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The basic service offers many of the features you'd find on higher priced plans from your local phone company or cable provider. You get unlimited calling within the United States, call waiting, caller ID and voice mail. Ooma will assign you a phone number in your local area code or you can choose -- for $40 more -- to have your current home number ported over.

Ooma also offers a "premier" service for $10 a month. It includes a second phone line and lets you block particular phone numbers and configure the service so it rings your home and mobile phones at the same time. For another $10, you can get the mobile app, which can access your voice mail and allow you to place low-cost international calls from your smartphone.

Although I've never had a VOIP service, I've talked to many people who do, and I've often been unimpressed with the call quality. Calls can stutter, you can miss words or whole sentences and sometimes voices sound metallic or robotic. That's one of the main reasons I've been reluctant to switch to a VOIP service.

But I was impressed with the calls I made on Ooma, which prides itself on offering high-quality transmissions. The calls typically sounded as good as if I had placed them on my regular landline.

Many of the calls I made were with Ooma's new handset, the HD2. It works like a regular cordless phone, with the Telo serving as its base station. You can plug the HD2 in anywhere in your house and roam around talking on it.

One cool feature of the HD2 is that it will download your contacts. On your account page on Ooma's website, you can import contacts from Outlook, Google (GOOG), Facebook and other sources. Once there, they will automatically transfer over to the handset. That may not seem revolutionary if you've been using a smartphone, but it's a huge convenience on a plain old landline.

The other nice feature of the HD2 is one-button access to your Ooma voice mail. By contrast, on a regular handset, you'd have to dial in your full phone number to check your messages.

Other than that, though, the HD2 is undistinguished. It's plastic and feels cheap. Compared with the Panasonic cordless phone I own, it feels big and bulky. And at $60 per handset, it's expensive; you can get a set of five cordless handsets at Costco for $120.

The other new device in Ooma's lineup is the Linx, which is basically a portable phone jack. After you plug the Linx into a power outlet and sync it with the Telo, you can connect any landline to it. It's a way of extending your Ooma service to other rooms in your house without having to buy an HD2 or a set of cordless phones. The Linx is easy to set up and works well, but it too is pricey, costing $50 per device.

In addition to offering expensive accessories, Ooma's service has other shortcomings. If your main reason for having a landline is for emergencies, Ooma may not be the best service for you. It's dependent on your electrical and broadband services, both of which are liable to fail in a disaster.

I also found myself wishing Ooma could do more. Unlike Skype, it doesn't support texting or video calls. And unlike Google Voice, it doesn't allow you to place calls directly from your computer by simply clicking a phone number or address book entry.

But those are quibbles. Compared to the phone services offered by AT&T and Comcast, Ooma offers comparable call quality and similar features. I'd pass on the handset and Linx, unless you really needed them, but for the price, the basic service is hard to beat.

Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285 or twolverton@mercurynews.com. Follow him at www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton or Twitter.com/troywolv.

Troy's RATING: 7.5 (Out of 10)

What: Ooma VOIP calling system and accessories

Likes: Inexpensive; very good call quality; includes features like voice mail, caller ID and call waiting; HD2 handset automatically syncs contacts and offers one-touch access to voice mail; Linx extender can be configured to connect to an optional second line.

Dislikes: Accessories, including the handset and the Linx, are pricey and the handset feels bulky and cheap; 911 access can be severed without electrical power or broadband service; doesn't offer video calling, texting or other advanced features.

Price: $150 for basic system including Telo adapter; $60 for HD2 handset; $50 for Linx extender.

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